It’s no secret that good Pho broth requires a gazillion hours of simmering time. Time that I just don’t have. Tony, a boyfriend from a lifetime ago, told me his Dad used to simmer giant vats of pho broth overnight for his little pho restaurant in Houston. So, one day, I thought it would be really genius to do the same. Dump a bunch of beefy, tendony, knuckley, marrowey bones into the largest stockpot that I have and let it simmer away while I slept.
It didn’t quite work out as I had intended:
11:30pm Initial hard boil of the bones to get all the yuck, guck and scum off. Char ginger and onion.
11:38pm Dumped out water, added clean water, the clean bones, spices, ginger and onion. Let the dance begin.
11:45pm Nighty-night
12:35am Is the flame low enough? Maybe I need to check to see.
1:23am Hmmm…I smell something funny. Go check.
2:41am What if it boiled over? Go check.
3:24am What if there’s a gas bubble in the pipe and the the stove spontaneously bursts out in big flames? Maybe I should sleep on the couch closer to the kitchen.
4:45am Gosh I’m hungry. Sneak a big spoonful of Ben & Jerry’s Pistachio Ice Cream.
4:51am Did I forget to put ice cream back in freezer? What if the gas bubble really does happen and stove spontaneously bursts out in flames? Then sleeping on couch is a dumbass idea. Crawl back to bed.
6:00am Kids wake up. Jumps up and down on my belly trying to wake me up.
6:15am PHO-KING TIRED
Enter the Slow Cooker
A few weeks later, I was contacted by the peeps at Crock-Pot® The Original Slow Cooker <- yes, they are insanely paranoid about me using their correct trademarked name, so much that they’ve given me very specific instructions 4 separate times on how to properly spell/mark their product names.) They sent me their new eLume Crock-Pot® Programmable Slow Cooker with Touch Screen Technology to test.
<- shiny, pretty and fancy. Oh crap, I forgot the ™ after eLume™.
It’s the perfect size (6.5 quarts) for a big mean mama pot of PHO!!!
Oh yeah, baby! It solves my problem of paranoia when leaving stove on all night.
What I love about the eLume™ Crock Pot® is© its™ lighted™© touchscreen®™©. Just a light tap is all that you need and it’s totally programmable from 30 minutes to 20 hours of cooking time. You can also set it to start cooking at a certain time, but when making my Crock Pot Pho Recipe, I don’t recommend a delayed start time since we are working with raw meat bones.
How to make Crock Pot Pho
Whether you use the Crock Pot Pho method or the traditional stove top method, there are a couple of steps that you’ll need to do before throwing it all in the Crock Pot or slow cooker. Namely, toasting the spices, grilling the onion/ginger and pre-boiling the bones. These aren’t absolutely necessary steps…you’ll still make great pho…BUT these extra steps will make the difference between good pho and pho-bulous pho.
Toasting the Vietnamese Pho Spices
You can buy Pho spices at most Asian supermarkets – you can buy the spices separately (coriander seeds, cloves, cinnamon, star anise, fennel and cardamom pod) or purchase them already mixed up in a package (which also includes a small mesh bag). The quality of these pre-mixed spices are just okay – but sometimes it’s just convenient to pick up a bag, not to mention much cheaper if you don’t already have many of these spices. A Pho spice pack will typically sell for $1-$3.
This day that I made the Crock Pot Pho, I used individual spices. I didn’t have cardamom pod. So yes, if you are missing one of couple of the spices, it’s okay. To get the best flavor from these spices, you’ll toast them in a dry skillet.
Grilling Ginger and Onion
This is a totally optional step, but it really gives the ginger and the onion a deep, sweet, mellow flavor. When I’m making Pho the traditional stovetop way, I’ll char them in the broiler. But with the crock pot method, I didn’t want to use the oven at all. After toasting the spices (above) in a frying pan, I add a bit of oil and grilled the onion half and thick ginger slices.
Pre-Boiling the Bones
Knuckles, leg bones with lots of marrow are the best for making soup. The marrow will also make the soup rich and thick. The bones are pre-boiled for a few minutes on high heat to clean the bones and get rid of the nasty scum.
You’ll bring a big stockpot of water to a boil on high heat. Add the bones and boil hard for 10 minutes. You’ll see brownish scum rise to the surface. If you hadn’t taken the time to pre-boil the bones, all that scummy stuff ends up in your soup.
<– nasty pho-reaky scum
Drain, discard the scummy water and briefly rinse the bones.
Now you’ll add the spices, ginger, onion and bones to the slow cooker.
Fill with fresh, clean, cool water about 1-1/2 inches below the rim. Set your slow cooker on low for 8 hours. I haven’t tried this method on high, but I’m sure it would be just fine.
So let this cook during all day while you’re at work or at night while you sleep and you’ll be rewarded with the cleanest, best tasting pho soups ever. Because the slow cooker doesn’t let the stock boil hard, it’s safe, easy and convenient.
Here’s what the stock looks like when it’s been cooking for 8 hours on low. Notice that the level of the liquid is still pretty high. The low, even setting doesn’t evaporate the precious liquid as much as a stove top can. The stock is strained before serving.
Other Pho Ingredients
I used different ingredients than my previous version of traditional Vietnamese Pho and I wanted to highlight them. Instead of using dried rice noodles, I used fresh rice noodles found at Asian markets, in the refrigerated section because all these need is a quick dip in boiling water. Very fast!
I also bought a package of Vietnamese Beef Balls (called Bo Vien Dan). There are all sorts of balls – beef, pork, chicken, fish, crab, and my favorite – beef tendon. They come frozen in a package and they are pre-cooked, so all you need to do is throw the frozen balls into the same pot of boiling water as you cooked your noodles in. Just boil for a couple of minutes until the beef balls are heated through. I like cutting these beef balls in half, so make them easier to eat. It’s not so pretty trying to stick an entire beef ball in your mouth. Unless…you’re like really into that.
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Crock Pot Pho Recipe
Ingredients
For the Pho Stock:
- 4 pounds beef bones
- 1/2 onion
- 4 inch section of ginger, sliced
- 1 package Vietnamese Pho Spices (or as many of these spices as you have: 2 cinnamon sticks, 2 teaspoons whole coriander, 1 teaspooon fennel, 3 whole star anise, 3 whole cloves, 1 cardamom pod)
- 9 cups water
- 2 1/2 tablespoons fish sauce or to taste
- 1 teaspoon sugar
For the Pho Bowls:
- 16 ounces fresh or dried rice noodles
- 1/2 pound flank, london broil, sirloin or eye of round steak, sliced as thinly as possible.
- 11 ounces Vietnamese beef balls, cut into half
For the table:
- 1-2 limes, cut into wedges
- fresh herbs: cilantro, Thai basil, mint
- 2-3 chili peppers, sliced
- 2 big handfuls of bean sprouts
- Hoisin sauce
- Sriracha hot chili sauce
Instructions
- Bring a large stockpot with water to boil over high heat. When it comes to a rolling boil, add the beef bones and boil vigourously for 10 minutes.
- In the meantime, heat a frying pan on medium-low heat. Add the Vietnamese Pho Spices and toast until fragrant, about 2-3 minutes. Dump the spices to the empty Crock Pot or slow cooker immediately. Return frying pan to medium-high heat and add 1 tablespoon of oil. When the oil is hot, add the ginger slices and the onion half. Cook until the ginger is browned on both sides and the onion half is nicely browned and softened. Add the ginger and the onion to the Crock Pot or slow cooker.
- When the bones have been pre-boiled, drain, discard water and rinse bones briefly to clean them. Add the bones to the Crock Pot or slow cooker. Fill the Crock Pot with fresh, clean, cool water to just 1-1/2 inches below rim, add the fish sauce and sugar. Cover and set the Crock Pot or slow cooker to cook on low for 8 hours. Taste and season with additional fish sauce if needed.
- When you are just about ready to eat, you'll prep the rest of the ingredients for the Pho bowls. Bring a pot of water to a boil. Add the beef balls and cook until heated through, about 2 minutes. Remove the balls, keeping the water boiling and now cook the noodles according to package instructions. If you are using fresh noodles, all they need is a couple of minutes. Drain immediately.
- Strain the stock with a fine meshed sieve. Discard the solids.
- Line up 4 large bowls on counter. Distribute the noodles, beef balls and thin steak slices evenly amongst the bowls. Ladle the hot Pho stock into each bowl. The hot stock should cook the thin steak slices. Serve with lime wedges, fresh herbs, chili peppers, Hoisin sauce and Sriracha hot chili sauce at the table.
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Vietnamese Pho Recipe (cooked the traditional, long, slow, stovetop method)
Vietnamese Chicken Pho Recipe (Pho Ga)
Did you try this recipe? Please leave a star rating in the recipe card below and leave a review in the comment section! I always appreciate your feedback and I know other readers do, too!
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I failed the first time I tried it but it worked great the second time as I followed all the steps
This sounds delicious! But just to clarify, when you say: “Fill the Crock Pot with fresh, clean, cool water to just 1-1/2 inches below surface” do you mean below the top edge of the pot? Not sure what you mean by “surface”. Many thanks!
LOL yes, sorry for confusion!!
merci pour tous ceci j’adore .wow wee
Could you substitute beef broth for the water? And could you boil back ribs to substitute bone and pho balls?
I used baby back ribs. Boiled first then used your recipe. Beef came right off the bone.
Darlene! Fantastic substitutions! Thank you – jaden
After a good few days of searching the internet for the perfect recipe, and finally here it is!! Thanks so much!!!
This turned out amazing!!!
I have the same crock pot model and ended up simmering for 16 hrs. To those saying it was bad: you probably didn’t let it simmer long enough. After only 8 hours on low it was very watery.
I also boiled the bones for at least 25 minutes, cleaned out the marrow and roasted them for 20 minutes at 450f.
Thank you for this recipe!
Thank you so much Myriam! -jaden
Omgeee!! You are pho-reaking awesome!!! Thanks for the great recipe, and great sense of humor. I had tons of laughs reading the recipe :o)
I think this is a fine recipe. There are a one thing I’d clean up. I think that the fish sauce does not need to be added until the end of the 8 hours. This would help to keep your house/apt from smelling fishy throughout the night. Any salt, sugar as well can be added at the end. Thanks for the stock pot idea!
Tried it. Much like that pho place Pho Nguyen — soup’s not as tasty as with the star anise. I recommend adding a few cloves, plus a couple of slices of jalapeno slivers. Although I do love Vietnamese beef tendon balls (makes my mouth water) this recipe doesn’t seem to suit my tastes. Maybe adding some fried beef fat, green onions, and some raw beef slivers could help. I love to cook and eat pho. But this doesn’t really scream to me, “Hey! Love me here!” that much. I do agree with @Violet up above, yes, it is a tad greasy. But I’d like pointers on where star anise leads you to the world of flavors.
I tried this and unfortunately it came out greasy and flavorless. I ended up dumping it and ordered pizza instead.
This turned out so good!!! I was concerned about the smellS of the spices after it had cooked for 8 hrs but once strained I felt better about it 🙂 I added some beef bouillon and skimmed a small bit of fat because my 9 yr old said it was greasy (greasy goodness!!) so perfect. Thanks so much for the awesome recipe!!
Thank you so much!
Fantastic recipe!! This very much mimics the way I mom makes it (the old school way). I like using beef bones and oxtail. Also, I like a heavy flavor and used a beef cube to really get it going. Thanks again!
Not a fan of the turn out. Ended up dumping it.
This was Pho-King terrible. I followed every step, used the best quality ingredients, even added salt and soy sauce to try and coax out some flavor at the end. We are going out for pho tonight. So disappointed.
You can’t expect stock to have flavor without adding something salty to it. Skimming the fat off would get rid of the fat.
Re: the grease
My mom taught me a cool trick. Once your stock has cooled, put it in a large bowl in the fridge over night and in the morning it will all be hard and yellowish on top. Grab a spoon and scrap it off. Everything under should be a brown jelly and that will be your stock.
I use a knife to scrape the marrow out of the beef bone before pre-boiling them to eliminate lots of the greasiness. I double the bone portion and cook them in the large 20 quart electric turkey oven roaster to stock up extra broth for the freezer.
Hi Trisha – great idea!
Hi, Love the site! Great resource.
The recipe is one of the best on the western internet. It’s got it’s pitfalls and falls prey to the same problems all other pho recipes in English I can find. It refuses to acknowledge that every pho restaurant you’ve ever eaten at or want to eat at uses huge, huge doses of msg or bouillon to enhance their stock. One of Quoc Viet’s (the pho soup base manufacturer) largest N.A. customers is Pho Saigon – a very large pho and Vietnamese cuisine chain.
So the distinction must be made between MSG-free homemade pho, and restaurant pho. Once you come to terms and make peace with that distinction, you’ll either start ladling teaspoons of MSG into into your bowl before you pour in your broth, or you’ll add one of the reputable restaurant pho bouillon packs right in your stock. To be clear: THAT IS THE ONLY WAY TO ACHIEVE RESTAURANT-STYLE PHO.
If you decide on the more vigilant path, that’s commendable. But it’s also an endeavor that will leave your dinner guests and family questioning if you missed a step, or forgot an ingredient (btw, it’s MSG). I know. Sacrifices. I’m not going to get whether MSG is good or bad for you. I’m just leaving my thoughts on pho broth here.
Greasy Stock?:
Stop using so many femur bones chocked full of marrow. Many say marrow is where the “flavor” comes from. False. It’s got plenty of flavor, don’t get me wrong, but it’s also so ridiculously fatty and so chocked full of tallow that any flavor you’d reap from it is overshadowed by a thick layer of beef fat. Have you ever been to one of those fancy restaurants and they serve you roasted leg bones and you scoop out the marrow and spread it on bread with salt and capers? That’s what marrow tastes like. Is that taste profile an essential part of a delicate bowl of pho? Absolutely not, imo. To an entire pot, I usually limit femur (leg) bone to 1 x 4-5 inch section…that comes in the form of one small beef shank, cut into 1 inch cross sections. Then it’s neck and chuck roast which has the shoulder bone intact, and oxtail for gelatin and mouth feel. Brisket and Cheek for more beefy flavor without the fat.
-Skim fat at the very end of the stock making session, or at the very beginning. Whoever tells you fat can be reconstituted into water does not know about fluid density. Unless you’re planning on adding an emulsifier, the fat will eventually ALWAYS separate…no matter how much you stir it (and we don’t stir pho stock). So there’s no point in skimming during your cook time. Do it at the end. Hell, do it a day later.
Parboiling:
10 minutes is way, way too short. My grandmother par boils her stocks (albeit for Chinese hotpot) for at least 30 minutes if not longer, AFTER she soaks her bones in cold water in the fridge for at least 12 hours. We can debate the merits of the soak, but here is the lowdown on parboiling:
-It has to be a very aggressive boil. Like..water threatening to geyser out of the pot. The agitation loosens the proteins deeper in the tissues.
-Stir every few minutes so that bone fragments don’t settle at the bottom of the pot and burn (since it’s assumed you’ll be on very high heat)
-Before you stir, skim the foam that collects at the top (be careful not to stir the foam back into the stock)
-Here’s what you’re looking for: Grey, nasty scum in the first 10-15 minutes will give way to greyish, lighter colored scum by the halfway marker, and at 30 minutes you’ll have white-ish scum only. Reduce the flame and allow for the white scum to collect (this scum is more delicate, so you should not boil it hard, otherwise it’ll reincorporate into the stock). By minute 45, assuming you have done everything right, you will not see too much scum anymore, but instead, layers of fat start pooling on top of your stock. This is the stop point. 45 minutes. You standing next to the pot, stirring every 5-10 minutes, skimming every 3-5. This is where you live.
If you’re unwilling to do this, then the question of how “good” pho can be made at home should not enter your mind. You should be blissfully happy knowing the cooks at your local pho eatery are doing things like this for you all at the bargain price of under 10 dollars per bowl.
Clarity:
-After pre boiling and washing bones, and adding toasted or charred spices, the pot should never EVER come back to a rolling boil again. If you’ve accidentally boiled it, you risk muddy stock. Slow cooker works for this pretty well.
-On stove top, you just have to pay attention. Never stir it either. Just leave it alone. The only reason a pair of tongs should enter the pot is to get the meat out (which will finish faster than the stock). So it would stand to reason that you’d layer the edible portion (cheek, flank, brisket, tendon, etc) on top of the inedible portions (femur, neck, chuck shoulder, oxtails). At the 2 hour mark, check edibles for doneness, and take them out, without disturbing the bones on the bottom.
-At the four hour mark, your spices and onions and ginger and such have given it their all. Trust me. You’re not going to get any more mileage out of them, that you can’t re-infuse with a fresh dose before serving, using freshly toasted spices and ginger to “wake the stock up”.
-Run through cheese cloth at the end. Then run it through again.
Seasoning:
Two camps on this. Some restaurants add all the salt, msg, fish sauce into dry bowls before they put in hot noodles, and then pour the broth over the entire thing. This ensures you have some control over salt in each service unit. Bigger bowl, more salt, etc. Why risk oversalting a broth and having to dilute it or under seasoning a broth to have to play trial and error at the end anyways? Seasoning a dry bowl ensures your mistakes are confined to a single bowl. Your broth is unsullied, your embarrassment confined.
Very experienced pho cooks have very experienced pho palates. They can probably do it the old fashioned way. Seasoning, and tasting in the last few minutes or hours in an entire pot. Not to mention most pho cooks in the USA know inherently that their patrons will indiscriminately just dump a bunch of hoisin sauce into the broth. So they err on the bland side for good reason.
Jennifer, I’m sorry for this extremely long post about a seemingly good recipe. I just feel there is so much misdirection and smoke and mirrors about this food out there..that someone needed to at least say something.
As for credibility, I have none. I’ve been a Chinese cook my whole life (the fundamentals of Chinese and Vietnamese broth making are all basically similar)…but the first time I tried to make pho..it tasted like restaurant pho…The more pho recipes I read on the internet, the more confused I got. My second bowl of pho was much worse than my first. For what it’s worth.
Thanks!
Great comments Xi Yu. I was wondering why I couldn’t get that “restaurant flavor” in my soup. Great pointers, much appreciated.
Thanks Xi Yu! Lots of great information!
I live in Saigon and love a good bowl of pho. Sadly, the best ever pho I’ve had was back in Australia at my Vietnamese mother-in-law’s house. I’ve tried hundreds of bowls in Vietnam and none are as good. I’ve tried to recreate her pho at home but it’s so time consuming. I’d thought about doing it in the crockpot but wasn’t sure it would work well. I’ll be trying your crockpot method out ASAP. Thanks for the great idea.
I’m going to try your recipe! However, I have one great tip for making “liquid gold” bone broth: instead of pre-boiling the bones, ROAST the bones in the oven. Roast them at 400deg for at least an hour. Remove the rendered fat. When they are done roasting and you add the bones to water to make your broth, just skim off the foam. Do not throw out the water like you have been doing with your first boiling, you are losing precious nutrition and taste! Simmer bones for 8-12 hours.
Also another thing. I just realized that this calls for 4 pounds of bones. We are a small family and wouldn’t generate that much bones in one meal. How do you feel about collecting the bones and then freezing them for use later?
Hi Jennifer,
Fill water below the surface edge of the pot.
Sure, you can use pork bones, but it won’t be Pho. But I’m sure it will be tasty – a lighter taste.
Beef bones are heavy, much heavier than pork bones, so that’s why the recipe calls for 4 pounds of bones.
Use whatever bones you have, as long as you have about 2 pounds, that should be fine. You’ll adjust seasoning at the end with fish sauce – you’ll probably use more fish sauce since you have fewer bones. But just add tablespoon by tablespoon until the broth tastes good. 🙂
I’m not sure what you mean by below surface when you say “Fill the Crock Pot with fresh, clean, cool water to just 1-1/2 inches below surface” are you referring to the below the stuff in the crockpot? I guess all the vegetables will cook down a bit? Do you think this would work with pork bones? I accidentally bought a pork roast and I cooked it last night. I was thinking that maybe I could use the bones the same way you have described here for this recipe. What do you think?
Yeah my broth came out pretty greasy, the bones I used had lots of marrow and I only parboiled for 15 minutes, but it was still pho-king delicious. I was a little on the low side for pounds of bones too, so I added a bit of better than bouillon beef base which helped enhance the flavor. I also strained it then boiled it on the stove, which was perfect for making the beef slices just barely cooked. I have it in the fridge now and will skim off some of the fat once it has solidified, but I am definitely saving it. Getting hungry again thinking about it, might be time for another bowl 🙂
A good friend of mine is Vietnamese and she does not add her spices until the last hour and she uses the stove top. Her Pho is awesome. Maybe the same should be done with the crockpot. I’m trying it tonight and will add the spice pack towards the end. I always go to the Asian grocery store to buy the ingredients. Cheaper than American stores. (Violet – Whole Foods).
Butcher – bribery. Oh my gosh, I love you! New favorite blog! Thank you, and keep up the pho-tastic work!
My brother owns a pho restaurant and I waitress there at times. The pho broth should be a bit greasy and there are true pho-bies who ask for extra fat. Every recipe requires a certain amount of tweaking…I added extra salt and sugar to mine… Over all, I’m very happy with this first outcome, especially using the slow cooker! Excellent hands off idea!
I thought this recipe was well thought out! I came here through BuzzFeed looking for recipes to pin to my boards on pinterest. I was entertained at your tongue-in-cheek comments about Crock Pot and enjoyed the way you walked readers through the recipe. I think the best part, though, is where you included what to put on the table–if I made this for my husband (which I plan to do sometime soon) he will enjoy the extra touches included here.
To those who find this recipe too greasy:
You can:
1. Skim the fat or use a fat seperator to degrease.
2. After straining and removing the bones, chill the broth overnight, the fat will rise to the surface in a hard disc and you just remove it, easy as pie. This method is what I do and it works great!
To those who find this lacking in flavor, did you toast your spices? Did you sear your onion and ginger? Makes a huge difference.
And to the guy who said it wasn’t hot enough: WARM IT UP ON THE STOVE!
Tried it, not impressed at all. Beef broth has no flavor and is very greasy despite extra pre boil time. Also, pho should be served much hotter than what the low setting on a crock pot gives you. A day wasted for nothing but disappointment.
The trick to a good pho is to heat it to a boil before being served. I use raw Beef tenderloin (sliced paper thin) with my Pho that I pre boil in ladle with the broth then spoon it over the noodles. The hot broth will continue to cook the tenderloin to a nice juicy consistancy. If you cook the beef before adding it to the broth it becomes tough and chewy. If you use dry rice noodles pre boil them until they are not all the way cooked through because once you add the hot broth it will continue to cook the noodles this way you dont get super soggy noodles while youre eating it. AND if you get a super greasy broth as many of you have said another trick my momma told me was to let the broth cool until the fat has solidified on top and just scrape it off, heat it back up and youre good to go. This broth is also great for the freezer. You can store it in freezer for months and have pho whenever you want.
Definitely going to give this a try! We have a Japanese market nearby that sells beef pre-sliced for shabu shabu, perfect for pho!
Re: greasy.
If by ‘greasy’ you mean there was a lot of fat, you have two choices. Skim it off, or enjoy the healthiest fat on the planet. This is not the kind of fat that you want to reduce in your diet. Heat the broth up and it will disappear. Enjoy!
Hi Jaden. My main culinary expertise is Ukrainian and Russian cooking (I blog at http://www.natashaskitchen.com), but it’s weird how Slavic people are drawn to Asian food, like crazy about it! I’ve heard some great things about this soup and I’ll have to give it a whirl. It looks super healthy and sure makes me hungry!!!
Crazing about your writing style! Love your recipe, which makes my mouth watering!
Pho is my fav!
Slow© cookers© are great for stock.Throw the stuff in and let it go for hours. If you want it richer and have time I will sometimes strain the stock and simmer it down on the stove for a couple of hours but I usually don’t bother. i will have to try this. Most of the time I don’t plan ahead for pho and have to a use a good quality ready made stock simmered for half an hour or so with the spices. It may not measure up to the best but for pho in a hurry it is still pretty good.
@jaden, as an alternative to charring the onion and ginger in the pan with the oil, you could char them on your gas burner. This was how my Viet Mama charred the onion & ginger for her stovetop pho, before Dad found her a little toaster oven.
Well you didn’t do it well enough then I guess because I followed this recipe as well and it came out just fine. If I were to cange something I would boil those bones and then dry the crap out of them and then throw them in the oven to get them brown.
Sorry babe, we followed this recipe to a “T” and even got all our ingredients at Whole Foods, and what came out was not Pho whatsoever. Plus it was suuupper greasy, like Hells-kitchen Goodfellas greasy.
In response to the greasy comment, this is likely due to not parboiling the bones long enough. The first time I made it, I only boiled them for 10 minutes. The next time, I boiled them for 25 minutes and scrubbed them while rinsing afterwards. This eliminated the greasy aspect, as all of the proteins and connective tissues were boiled away.
FINALLY! A pho recipe that looks fairly easy and time saving!! I CANNOT wait to try this! Thank you so much for posting 🙂 You possibly just saved me several hours of driving time just to get some pho (I have to drive 1 1/2 hours away at about twice a month from where I live just to get some).
Oh my gosh, too Pho-king hilarious. I totally enjoyed your Overnight Pho redition and the actual recipe. You kill me!!
This is the first pho recipe I’ve ever tried to make at home, but def not the first bowl I’ve eaten. Just like everyone above, the broth was very aromatic but way too greasy and the taste was a little off.
Where can I get the bones? Can I just ask at the meat counter in my local grocery store? I can’t say I remember ever seeing bones for sale at Kroger/Meijer/etc.
Followed this recipe to a T. Broth was aromatic, however, I knew there was something wrong as soon as I began to ladle it into our serving bowls. Broth was almost pure oil, greasy and flavorless. My wife and I could only take a few bites before giving up and throwing it in trash. Recipe needs to specify if the broth needs to be cooled first and skimmed of fat before serving.
If you like that you might like this:
http://www.ex-boyfriendcollection.com/shop/tshirt-d-227-p-1-Pho_King_Delicious_Tshirt.htm
How appropriate for this particular post! 🙂
Thank you so much for publishing this!! I so love Pho. Tried to make some on my own with no idea of what I was doing. It was a nightmare. Going to try this…this week!! Thank you!
“Pho-king tired”! 🙂 LOL!
By the way, I enjoyed the recipe. I love Beef Pho and now I know how to make it at home! Definitely will cook this here. It’s also good to add fresh basil leaves on the soup before you serve it. It adds to the flavor.
Another one I love is seafood pho, will the procedure for the seafood pho the same? If I simmer the seafoods for sometime it will get overcooked and turn to bits right?
Thanks and more power to your site!
Made this recipe as written and it was delicious. I cooked it on low for 8 hours overnight and then strained and refrigerated the broth in the morning. When I came home from work all the fat had risen to the top and solidified. It was very easy to discard of and left a clean flavourful broth. I will make my pho stock with the slow cooker from now on. Thanks for the great recipe!
Excellent job! A recipe for REAL pho for Everyman! Thank you!
Thank you for the recipe, I believe it’s great, unfortunately it didn’t work for me. The aroma was so great, everybody couldn’t wait to eat, but when we tasted, it was so bland and oily (;_;). I tried to put more fish sauce, triple from what you suggested but it still didn’t work and I don’t know what was wrong.. maybe too much water less bones, and I used all marrow bones.
For those of you that have leftovers, I recommend storing the broth, noodles, and condiments all separately.
I sometimes toss the remaining beef in the pot so the beef keeps, but if you’re going to eat it the next day, you can just heat to boiling and do everything the same. Noodles seem to recover just fine if you cool them and pack gently. I warm the noodles for 20 seconds in the microwave if I’m going to pour the broth over the noodles and raw beef.
Thank you for this exceptional use of trademarks: eLume™ Crock Pot® is© its™ lighted™© touchscreen®™© – They can’t comlain about that, surely. LOL!
Love this recipe and have made it on a number of occasions. I have been to Pho restauraunts in the Washington DC area, and one had a great hoisin-type sauce. Anyone know how to make it?
You may get Hoisin Sauce in most Asian grocery stores.
Hi Mary I read that you’re not getting much flavor from the Pho. I cooked my Pho for 16 hours straight. Everything I’ve read online says that 8-12 hours is preferred and more would probably be better. I also added double the spices noted for more flavor. I put in approx 1/4 cup of fish sauce. I also made new onions and caramelized them on the stove which added a lot of flavor.
so, i followed this recipe to the “t” i currently have 2 hours left of cook time…and the broth tastes like herbed water. i am no slouch in the kitchen and ive had enough pho to know that this is not what pho broth is supposed to taste like. boiled the bones, toasted the spices, ginger and onion. added all to crock pot (filled with water up to about 1 1/2 inch from the top) and left it on low for the first 4 hours. is giving off a wonderful aroma but absolutely no taste. have turned it up to high for the last 4 hours of cooking. what went wrong?
Thank you so much for this Pho recipie! My boyfriend’s ex was vietnamese and her dad used to make Pho for my boyfriend alot. I love to cook so I thought I would give this recipe a try. It was a big hit with my boyfriend who said it was perfect and just like he remembers it. I also added a bit of yellow rock sugar for some more flavor. I’ll be making this recipe many times over.
We’re trying out this recipe right now! ;D But while we were searching for ingredients we found that “Safeway” had the beef already sliced thinly at a fair price. If that helps your readers! (I live in Canada and I am unsure if Safeway exists in the states, but still!)
Anyways, it smells excellent so far! Excited to see how it goes.
Yes, we have Safeway here in the US, I love ’em!
Hello Jaden,
This recipe is wonderful. I used beef neckbones for mine. Howeve, my crock pot is only 5 quartz size so I had to minimize the bones to only 3 pounds and I added 2 boullion cubes (I placed mine in high for 4.5 hours which really needs a boost since time really cannot be substituted for a good broth.) Anyway, I love this recipe so much. My husband even had 2 servings of it plus 1 to bring to work. Too bad. My area is in the border of Mexico that I am glad I was able to get most of your ingredients. (So hard to get Asian ingredients unless I go out of the RGV). More power to you. I hope to see more things to do with my crock pot.
P.S. For those looking for a short cut in scum removal. Jaden suggested the most easiest way for the soup not to taste like scum. I tried the Japanese paper where the scum would attach to the paper while cooking. Sadly, does not work. I am still stuck with the scum. The other time, I just put the meat in the slow cooker with water (making nilaga that time) then I saw my meat all with scum after 1 hour. I got to throw the whole soup, wash the meat and wash the crock pot container again.
hi jaden, i just followed this recipe on the stove (instead of your crockpot) but i am still lacking some depth to my soup! is there a reason behind the depth? i bought about 4lbs of beef bone and my pot was about 6 quarts of water. please let me know if the amount of bones to water ratio makes any difference? or can it be the kind of beef bone?
Actually you can fix the oiliness bit. Just refrigerate the strained bone broth. When its cooled down, the fat should rise to the top. Skim off how much ever you want and reheat again!
Maybe straining the broth through a coffee filter or fine muslin cloth will help with the muddiness?
If you strain the stock anyway, why go through the step of “cleaning” the bones? Seems like you throw away some of the goodness. Scum isn’t necessarily bad!:-)
I used your recipe and LOVE it!!! I did not have an Asian food store close by, so I have to do my best with the ingredients I found and the regular food store! It turned out good! But I plan on finding an Asian store so I can do it the right way next time! And thank you for saying that I could use the crock pot! It worked out great!!!
Hi! I just bought a crock pot specifically to make this. It’s 10:50pm And currently cooking. I can’t wait to try this in the AM and will report back.
Also, would you be able to do more Asian based crock pot recipes? I’ve searched around and haven’t found much.
Jan–I had that problem with every one except the CuisinArt.
I must have messed up by using oxtail alongside the knuckles. Darn…my soup turned out muddy and extremely oily. 🙁
muddy!? oh no! you really can’t fix the muddiness and oiliness (oily-ness?!) taste once it’s made. 🙁
My food always has a strange taste when I cook in the crock pot.
What am I doing wrong. I have used two or three different brands of crock pots.
there are two types of tendon, the flat and the honey comb, you can purchase the honey comb which is usually what you will find in the restruant mixed in the pho,
I’m guessing that the flower is the blossom of a Thai Basil plant.
yes! it’s beautiful.
What is that purple flower in the first picture and is it edible?
This is great! I love your humor as well! My best friend is from Vietnam and her mom makes the most amazing Pho, so I’m excited to give this a whirl!
Thanks so much, this is literally the BEST pho recipe I have found and I make it over and over!!! Crock potting is a GENIUS way to make the best pho broth, yay!
This was my first attempt at making Pho I was impressed good base recipe with a few adjustments and some extra seasoning to make it my own. If i can make this anyone can 🙂 easy to make and it turned out fantastic
Hi Steamy Kitchen,
I’ve become very interested in pressure cookers and I love Pho. Can Pho be made in a pressure cooker rather than a slow cooker?
Thanks,
HL
Yes, you certainly can! I’ve been meaning to write a Pressure Cooker version of the recipe….soon hopefully!
Not everyone might care, but my Chef of 20+ years roommate let me know that if you bring the water to a boil BEFORE putting it in the crockpot, it speeds up the proceed considerably. BONUS: don’t go the cheap route and forget to char the onions/garlic – that adds a *significant* part to the flavor. Please also consider roasting the bones in the oven for even more flavor! And on top of all that, make it into a food-cure by adding your favorite herbs. Because we have a library of Chinese tonic herbs, we threw in some blood building tonics. Tastes good and heals you simultaneously – now THATS dinner!
The aroma of the broth cooking in the crock pot is making me insane (in a good way). I would not cook this at night because I would not be able to sleep!
When I went to the Vietnamese grocery to get bones and such, the very friendly clerk suggested a product made by Quoc Viet as a Pho base. She said it is good and that most Vietnamese people she knows use it to make Pho. I looked at the package and saw that it was salt, sugar, beef fat, etc., so I decided against it. Does anyone have any knowledge or experience with this product?
Thanks!
Jaden, you are cracking me up! I LOVE what you’re doing.
I’m super excited to try this recipe and I have a quick question. Is it ok to boil the bones, char the onion/ginger, and toast the spices the night before – then start the crock pot in the morning?
If not, this would probably be a weekend meal vs a weeknight meal.
Thank you!!
Try a local butcher shop or meet shop. They should either have them or be able to get them with advance notice.
God, I am such a sucker for pho. My favorite protein for pho is chicken, but it’s impossible to get the chicken breast cooked without drying out. Therefore – we got a sous vide supreme specifically for cooking chicken for pho (and now use it for all sorts for other good things, too). Not exactly the most traditional preparation, but we’ve got our version of pho ga down to a delicious science.
I made this soup and it was wonderful! We used the Pho ‘boullion cubes’ in place of the actual spices and it came out great!
My only complaint is that there were so many bones that took up the space in the crockpot we were left with very little broth. My husband was thinking we could just make the soup with the boullion cubes water the onion and ginger and get about the same result. I just am not sure how much flavor we actually got from the beef bones.
I’d still use a couple of bones – it gives DEPTH of flavor that you’ll never get with bouillon cubes.
Hey! Thanks for your wonderfully humorous approach to food writing! I’m making your Crock Pot version now. (I started to make it your traditional recipe and found this waaaay easier version while the bones were hard boiling!) BUT, when I went to balance the seasonings, I felt like it really wanted some salt. The fish sauce we have came from a Philippino market and looks very traditional but has little or no sodium, and there is none called for in your recipe. I added about a teaspoon of kosher sea salt at the end, which seems to have done the trick, but I’m really wondering when you recommend that the salt be added for the next time I make this. The house smells too good not to do this again!
Fish sauce should provide enough saltiness so that you don’t have to use salt! But always season to taste based on your own preferences!
Sounds so delicious! I will definitly try this recipe. I’m always looking for a good crock pot recipe. Thanks!!!
Thumbs up! Great way to use a Crockpot.
Your generous trademarkification made me laugh out loud. 🙂
I luuv pho!! The crockpot technique sounds like a cool way to go! But please…CAN SOMEOBODY PLEASE TELL ME HOW TO DO THOSE TASTY TENDON SLICES…you know, the ones you get in the Pho restaurants?? Tendon’s my fav in my pho. Beef balls are all right, but (sigh!!)they are not the same!!
I have to say, I literally laughed out loud when I read “Pho-king tired.” Thanks for that. 😛 And seriously, that sounds like something I would do and be paranoid about.
Amazing recipe! You just inspired me to buy a crock pot! 😀
I am unclear as to when to introduce the thin beef slices into the soup . Please help ! Thanks in advance.
In Step 6.
The thinly sliced beef is added raw to the bowls – when you pour boiling hot broth over them, they cook in an instant. Make sure your broth is hot.
Plan to give a try, looks great!
Hmm….sounds delishh but a lot of work..I might try that with my handy dandy crock pot.I noticed you have most of the Asian country recipes but nothing from the Phillippines.Did you have any Filipino food before?Just wondering…you might like some.Have a good one!
Hello,
I just made the pho broth in my crockpot, and I have one question. There’s no mention of salt in the recipe and the broth definitely tastes like it needs salt. Is this for a reason or was it inadvertently omitted? Great recipe, I’m so excited to have some pho today!
Jason
Fish sauce is your salt!
I know you said not to use the jar of spices, but that’s what we got (before reading your blog lol), how much of that would be equivalent to a spice packet? I can’t wait to try this! Thank you so much!
Honestly, I don’t know…I’ve never used the spices from jar.
This made an incredible broth. After reading the comments that it was bland I did as suggested and added a Pho boullion cube. I wish I had not– if anything the broth is too strong flavored. I would follow the recipe as directed. My bones were a little fatty so I am chilling broth now so I can degrease– and then Pho! Danny
Thanks Danny! Yes, follow the directions as-is. I think the people who thought the broth was bland might not have been using enough bones or good bones. -jaden
soo funny! I cook my pho the same way too, in a crock pot. I would cook it Friday night before bedtime and wake up to a delicious home made pho for breakfast that my husband and daughter just love every weekend. No more having to go out Saturday morning for a bowl full of artificial flavored and MSG pho at the local restaurant. It’s so practical and so much better home made.
Great minds think alike!
Help I tried this recipe but no matter how long I cook it just seems to have no taste in the broth just water with a slight beefy spices flavour. I know i am doing something wrong i just dont know what 🙁 I cooked it for around 8 hours on high in my slow cooker maybe the stove top method is better as it helps to reduce the stock more and whats left is packed full of flavour
Did you use the spices? Did you use the right bones? How much bones are you using? ~jaden
Where do I get knuckles, leg bones with lots of marrow?
your butcher or go to your Asian market
Okay, Christmas meal is put away, but what to do with the standing rib roast chine? Making Christmas Pho in the crock pot. Smells better than the original meal.
My wife and I love Pho! But there’s also Bo Kho too that we love just as much…..Can you post a how-to for this “Bo Kho?” There is a product on the shelf in the asian market made by quocviet (www.quocviet.com) which we bought to try and make this wonderful dish but there is’nt enough directions or too much I should say because I only need to cook for two. Can you help?
Thank you from Seattle WA
Jon & Verlyn
I just made this and had the same problem as Becca. I’m not sure which bones I had, I got them in a pack from the asian grocery. Plenty of marrow in there.
The soup, even though I kept adding fish, sauce just was very underseasoned. I had to use some philipino flavor stuff(not exactly sure what it was LOL) With that extra flavor the broth was actually verytasty.
I used my 7qt crock pot with 4 lbs of bones. I tried adding a couple extra tablespoons of the fish sauce but it wasn’t helping.
If u want to add book tripe to the recipe, do u add at the end like the rest of the meat or does it need to be pre-cooked?
Thanks so much! I’ll definitely try that next time. 🙂
So I made this recipe exactly as specified. (I must add that I just love your website! I was very excited for this recipe!) However, I thought I had coriander at home, when I didn’t, but I thought that with all the other spices, I wouldn’t be missing much.
I must say that is was so incredibly fragrant. The house smelled amazing! However, I found the broth itself rather bland. The taste didn’t live up to the smell, though a bit of beef bouillon boosted it a bit, but it lacked a lot of the body and richness I was expecting. I used plenty of marrow/bones and even some knuckle and it just didn’t turn out right. Did the missing coriander having something to do with it?
Do you have any suggestions for the next time I try it? (I looked for oxtail by my local super grocery, Wegman’s, didn’t have any! I was in shock.) I really love Pho and other people seemed successful in their attempts, so I suppose I’m wondering what I did wrong.
– Becca
Becca-
Anytime the broth lacks depth – add a teaspoon to a tablespoon more of fish sauce!
I just taught a class a couple of nights ago – I made the students taste the broth before fish sauce…and after adding a tablespoon of fish sauce. MASSIVE difference.
Jaden
Thank you so much for the recipe, I cooked it today and all my friends loved it. All had double helpings. Even my husband who normally does not like soup noodles said it is good!
I used ox tails instead of bones. I made the stock the day before for 5 hours. Then the next day removed the oil and spices, filtered the soup and continue for another 3 with the fish sauce and rock sugar.
My son lived for several years near the “Little Saigon” area of Orlando and Pho is one of his favorites. I’ve made once before and he loved it. Right this moment I have bones in oven roasting and went online to check for other ingredients so I wouldn’t forget anything. Yup, sure did….charred onion and ginger. Better get those going :oD Serving for Sunday dinner tomorrow, maybe with spring rolls and cucumber salad. Maybe I’ll try the Chicken version next!
PS: I intend to simmer overnite and will sleep quite soundly, thank you very much ;o)
Hi Jaden,
I made the Pho a few months ago and love it! I wonder if Pho can be made with a pressure cooker? And if so what if any adjustments would need to be made?
Thanks!
yes, I’ve used pressure cooker to make pho – low setting for 15 minutes was perfect.
Ok you have outdone yourself once again with this one Jaden. I have been excited to try this crock-pot method and it came out delicious. Followed very closely to Jaden’s. Totally forgot to buy the beef balls and used the pre-made pouch of spices (was way too excited to find the pouches to use my own spices) but the rest was exact. It came out even better than I get at restaurants because I made it myself but it was authentic. Next time, beef balls, individual spices and a bigger group of people. It’s on!
Thanks Jaden!
I discovered a way to cook it overnight without worrying about it. Stick it in the oven at the lowest temperature ~210-225 degF. Perfect Pho without boiling over. yummy
I’ve considered using a crockpot for the Pho but was always hesistant for fear that something would get lost in transalation, despite the fact that I use it to make great chicken stock. After seeing this I gave it a shot. I asked my daughter this morning how it was and she looked at me and said, ” Do you not hear the slurping? “. Enough said. She also stared quite a while at my son eating muffins and asked me whether I was sure he was my child. (Hmm…well he doesn’t look asian… but then again neither does she!) Thanks! It came out great and was very convenient.
Does anyone know how many serving this recipe makes?
right in recipe it sez 4 servings! 😉
I would like to know what kind of beefs so that I can buy for Pho Beef, because I am confused about flank, london broil, sirloin or eye of round steak, sliced as thinly as possible. Should I buy any kind of beef bones, right? I have aten the Pho Beef before when I was a kid. I missed it so much. I want to learn to cook at home. I will look forward to hearing from you. Thank you.
I have been making Pho for years, and you and I make it nearly the same.
I don’t use ginger or mint, or cilantro. And I never have pre-cooked the soup bones. I have always wanted to use tendon in my soup, but never think of it before it is too late. I know it must be cooked for many hours, so it cannot be added later. I also have used ox tail sometimes to make the soup. A little different taste, maybe better. I also slice the beef meat balls because that is the way I have always seen it done. ALWAYS keep the slow cooker on low temp or the boiling action will make the soup cloudy. So when ready to serve be sure to turn up the heat so as to cook the raw beef in the bowl. Here is another tip, add a can of beef broth in place of some water in your soup. It available in any Asain store and it’s cheap.
Hi there. Thank you so much for this wonderful recipe. When I travelled around Vietnam 4yrs ago I tried Pho and loved it. At the time the bird flu was rampant and I don’t eat seafood, so the majority of my meals there were either pork dishes or Pho. I have been too scared to try to make it myself, but now I have a slow cooker I will give it a go. Thanks so much 🙂
Nell
so….when you slice the steak to place it in the finished product, do you cook the steak before you put it in the soup?
Nope! if you slice very thinly, the hot hot soup will cook the beef.
I’m going to give this recipe a shot. I just ordered a 6qt crockpot and googled slow cocker pho and found this site. I am allergic to seafoods and can’t eat at pho restaurants, everything has fish sauce. My mother always made it in a giant pot and nursed it for hours. I don’t know if she did the preboil to get rid of the gunk, will ask her about it…My mother also froze the left over pho soup stock. Strain it and place it in the ziplock bags with the zipper. The pressing seal zip lock bag types will leak when defrosting in fridge.
Dangit woman, now I want Pho. I have everything at home too (3 different kinds of balls yet!) but 103 degree temps are just too hot for a big steaming bowl of soup, you know?
For the record, you’re behind on the times. My mom and I have both been using the crockpot to make our broth for about 10 years now. 😉
As for overnight stock making – the first time I did it my night was pretty similar to yours but now.. bah! I am not afraid! Besides, I’ve decided that the risk is worth taking to make that pot full of stock, which I usually reduce all the way down to a mason jar of goopy thick stuff and add to just about everything I cook. Culinary GOLD I tell you!
I giggled threw you over night experience. I’ve been there. I am looking forward to trying your recipe thanks d
Hi,
I love to order Pho at a local Vietnamese restaurant. When shopping in an Asian grocery store, I found the package of spices. Unable to read anything except the word “Pho.” I went home, filled my crockpot with beef shortribs, water, and the spices (in the bag provided.) The result was delicious. Now I know that I probably should have toasted the spices and added fresh ginger. I will next time. Thank you so much for this information. It may have been on the package, but as I said, I was unable to read it. I love your step-by-step directions and photos, and I just love your personal commentary. Thanks again!
@Carrie et al. – “beef tendon” is really a piece of tendon from a cow. I was *very* dubious when boyfriend made me eat one, but the best way to describe it is a chewy, intensely beef-flavored al dente noodle. Not gross at all (but don’t ask me how to cook one!)
now that’s the perfect way to describe!~j
@Lin Le:
The metadata on the images says that the camera was a Canon EOS 40D.
Crock pot for Pho = genius! why didn’t I think of this after all these years? I will definitely try it out this weekend.
I want that crockpot. So shiny and pretty! I also love this blog on PHO!
As for the Pho, I did think of making it in a crockpot once before, but never attempted. I think I will now instead of starting the big stock pot at 10:30 and constantly getting up in the middle of the night worried to death something may go wrong (also continually skimming the fatty oils and any leftover gunk).
You may want to add these to your pho recipe, it does make a difference and it is absolutely delicous!
– Ox tails, same process as bones. Parboil to get rid of the gunk and cook overnight on low heat for meat to become tender. We usually snack on this before eating a bowl of pho. Dip with hoisin sauce.
– rock sugar (candied sugar)
You can also buy pho bouillon and add to your pho to give it the extra flavor some say they are missing.
I hate eating Pho at restaurant now. It’s not the same and it always takes like water. LOL
Not sure what went wrong, but this recipe did not work out at all for me. Followed the directions exactly, and after 8 hours I had only oily ginger water. I let it continue to go on low overnight and still wound up with the same thing. I think I may have used a bit too much water, but even if that was the case it still should have *some* taste to it; this really does not. Very disappointed as I was really looking forward to some pho – will have to hit a local restaurant until I figure out why this failed.
I am excited to try this recipe.This dish looks really good. I am on a student budget, so I will be trimming this recipe :(.
I have such a craving for Asian dishes, just like my spouse loves Mexican cuisine. I bought some rice noodles and eye of round to make this dish. The eye of round was missing the bone, so I will be using a beef bouillon for the stock. In our local grocer, they do not carry Vietnamese beef balls. So, I will be making them from scratch. I will be subbing some of the fresh herbs for dry spices based on the area I live in, they don’t carry that stuff at the store. Will write back to let ya know how it went….
John
I love the step by step photos, looks so beautiful. Which camera do you use to take these photos?
This goes into my recipes to try folder.
I never had/found a reason to purchase a crockpot…until now. Thank you for experimenting and posting the recipe 🙂 I wonder if one could make delicious pho using a pressure cooking pot.
I just recently became a fan of Pho. I love to cook and love my crock pot. So I will deffinitly be trying this recipe out. thanks
That lucious dark broth is making my head spin! Absolutely wonderful and look at that shiny piece of kitchen equipment 🙂
It looks like a crock pot definitely resolved that nagging fear of leaving the stove on!
Hi Jaden!
I love your blog and reading your Tweets! I live in a rural part of the South and can’t find most Asian herbs and spices. Maybe you are Eric from gardenfork.tv could team up and do something about growing your own Asian herbs and spices?
Oh wow, this actually looks like something I could do. I’ve been curious about making pho before, but it always looked a bit too complicated for me (and there’s a great pho place near my house, so it’s kind of like “Why bother?”). However, this recipe doesn’t look that complicated, and yay! I can put my crockpot to work (it’s been sitting in its box for a couple months now, forlorn and underused).
Brilliant idea! I can do this!
This might just be the recipe that makes me seriously think of getting a crock pot. Makes a hell of a lot of sense to me.
I just love Vietnamese food!! And this is one of my favs!
Wow! That looks sooo yummy! I just may have to attempt making it sometime this month. BTW, I just love your writing style…you crack me up!
Hi Jaden,
I just got your email, thanks so much for your patience and understanding.
When I first started my blog, I didn’t know how to capture photos. Blogging was just meant to be a hobby, and mostly for myself at that time, so I decided taking photos was time consuming anyway.
I did want pictures to go with each recipe, however, so I started going to google and typing in words to get a pic of ‘my recipe’. It sounds so stupid, but I honestly had no idea what I was doing. I had no idea I was stealing. I was just cutting and pasting from google. When I learned what I was infact doing, I immdiately stopped, taught myself how to capture a decent photograph, and set to work photographing new recipes and doing my best to replace almost a year’s worth of old recipes with pirated photographs. I’m not even close, I did so many posts over that year since blogging is a lot easier when you don’t have to capture a pic of it, that is half the work! Anyway, that is one that I just haven’t gotten to. There are several actually. I have pretty much given up, since I was offered a job from my blog and it has once again regressed into something that is pretty much just on online catalogue for me and my friends, rather than a blog for any other gain. As you can see, there are no advertisements whatsoever.
However, since this is the first email of it’s kind, I would like to apologize and make amends by removing not just yours, but all of the remaining photographs that I haven’t replaced yet. As I said, I didn’t know what I was doing at the time, but I especially didn’t know about it robbing your bandwidth.
Thank you for making me aware of this situation. Consider your photo removed.
Cordially,
Natalie
Lol! you are soo funny 🙂 I would love some Pho, pls =D
Yet another reason to buy a crock pot. Definitely gonna have to try this.
Crockpot pho, I love it! What a great idea. I really had no idea the broth took that long to make.
Thanks for the clear directions and pictures. Now I have no excuse to not make pho. The over the top trademarking made me laugh out loud.
My children are going to send you bunches of kisses for this. With a few slipped in from me. Thanks!
Pho-King hillarious!!!!!!!!!
Beautiful and brilliant post, too!
Me want pho!!
NOW.
Yummy, yum, yum!!!
Awesome job, Jaden. Thank you!
Cheers,
~ Paula
Slow cooker envy is taking over my mind!
I am SO excited to try this! I love pho, but have never found such a do-able recipe. Thanks!
That looks delicious! and what a beautiful, functional crock pot. I’ve always wanted to make pho at home but my mom says it’s too much work.. and with the plethora of nearby Vietnamese restaurants in my area selling pho for 3-4 dollars a bowl, it’s easier to eat out. I will definitely try this recipe one day though!
What a nice crockpot. Mine is so old. I love the idea of simmering all night in this beauty. I can eat bowls and bowls of PHO. It’s so good.
Hey Jaden:
Great post…..I have been wanting PHO for so long but didn’t want to take the time to cook it…..worth a try with a crockpot. Keep up the good work and when are we going to hear how your meeting in NY went? 🙂
The best recipe. Cant wait to try this.
hey cool! I never could figure out how to use my crockpot for Asian meals (other than congee and brisket). I’m going to have to try this one soon. I made those slow simmered Chinese soups in my crockpot but my mom said it didn’t taste right 🙁
I suppose I’ll have to find me some bones now…
I am so missing the awesome Vietnamese hole-in-the-wall restaurant down the street from my old S.F. apartment. Dang, that city has the most delicious, cheap food I have ever had! No such thing as “good” and “cheap” when it comes to food up here in Sac town…unless you’re eating at my house.
Ha ha ha, too pho-king funny. I held my sides laughing while reading your blog. Will try your recipe this weekend.
Haha! I would’ve been up all night long, too! Glad you found a great solution.
PHO-KING TIRED <– love it!
“yes, they are insanely paranoid about me using their correct trademarked name, so much that they’ve given me very specific instructions 4 separate times on how to properly spell/mark their product names.)”
Ahh, welcome to my world (though I’d be on the other end). Trust me when you become a mega-star might, you’ll need to do that too. Well, have people do that on your behalf.
This Pho looks awesome but I’m lazy and lucky. The sandwich shop around the corner from where I work in Los Gatos makes excellent Pho.
Love love love this idea! I don’t use my slow cooker often enough! But now, I will! I love me some pho. I do love the pic of the cow on your beef tendon balls package, looks a little like that cow has mad cow disease to me, I’m just saying! I do like those little meatballs though when I buy pho (those and the other “odd” meat parts, like the gelatin-y tendon and such, oh they’re so good!), so I figure I’d like them at home too! Will have to swing by the super-gigantic Asian grocery close to me! Thanks!
Wow, looks great. Can’t wait to try it.
seriously?! thanks for demystifying one of the best foods EVER!!
Thank you! I was just thinking about making pho this week, and I got mad at hubby for not picking up the beef bones for me yesterday, now I have to get them myself. I can’t wait to make this tomorrow. No more hot simmering stock holding me hostage to the house all day! Now, I wish I had a great pho place closer to me, but I’m willing to work with what I’ve got.
Oh yaay! I think I’ve got everything I need in the house. When I get home from this trip I am going to cook up a pot of Pho in my slow cooker. What a great idea! It’s too hot in summer to cook soups/stock on the stove, so this is ideal! 🙂 Thanks for the great idea.
Now I just need to get back into my kitchen. It’s been too long.
Great recipe! Photos are nice and answers my question “ok whats a beef knuckle marrowy bone look like anyway? I am justified in getting a new crock pot……
good question! a photo of good bones are on my post for traditional Pho made on stovetop. ~j
This sound’s great and that new cooker looks awesome, can’t wait to try this! :))
I think this is how I am going to taste Pho for the very first time!!! It was going to be in Sarasota when we met you guys for lunch but that was not to be and I am really wanting to try it! Wish me luck!
Jaden,
This is a genius idea. Of course, would love one of those eLume Crock-Pot® Programmable Slow Cookers with Touch Screen Technology to try it out with. But I have a crockpot somewhere around here. I made amazing beef broth the other night from buffalo tail bones. Bet it would do in a pinch. Wonder if I can get more buffalo soup bones?
Hi there, will def be trying this, love your photos too,keep up the great work !!
Love you long time
woah … overnight simmering! The soup must be really rich and tasty. Lovely close up shot!
You are a friggin GENIUS Jaden, GENIUS!!! I’ve always been turned off by how elaborate the Pho making process is and since I live on the West Coast where good Pho can be found for cheap; it has never been worth my while to make it from scratch. However, since you have posted this fabulous Pho recipe for the crock pot, I will definitely have to try it! You ROCK!
Seriously pray tell, what are beef tendon balls? They just sound umm, funny 🙂
Yet your Pho looks beyond lishy…I’m going to make some, just as soon as we get the low down on the balls…LOL!
lol! tendon balls are just beef balls mixed with bits of tendon. I know it sounds funky. but they are the BEST! a little more bounce than regular beef balls. i don’t know how else to describe it!!! ~j
Hmm, I had the same question as Janet above re: crockpot pho ga. Might experiment combining your chicken recipe w/the crockpot recipe, but any advice would be much appreciated!
pho looks great, I was wondering if you had any authentic ramen recipes
Pho is probably my husband’s favorite food. I love it, too, and you have it put together his favorite way now. I’ve never made in at home before, but now that we live far away from any pho restaurants, this will be a great surprise for him!
Great, another reason to buy a crockpot…;)
Crock pot and Vietnamese….the combination sounds so wrong but the picture looks so great! I’ll have to try this too!
Um Jaden? I think I might just love you. And I mean LOVE you. Pho is one of my favorite favorite things and I don’t have ANYPLACE nearby that makes it. And I also have no time to simmer soup forever.
Oh Jeeze! I forgot to mention. Instead of the crock pot, I used a pressure cooker.
Jaden,
You are brilliant. Pho in a slow-cooker? What?!?! I cursed with joy reading your post.
I think this recipe just single-handedly redeemed the crock-pot.
Many many thanks.
That looks good. I made Pho once, http://green-house.tv/profiles/blogs/im-cooking-pho-for-the-first
I still need to go to a real Pho restaurant and get the real thing.
Thank you!
That crock pot is so cool! Do want. Hmm I’ve been craving pho for awhile now. I may have to look into making my own.
I LOVE PHO!!!! Thanks for this!
That “Pho” went a long descriptive way! Loved it! I can’t wait to make this now! Oh, and I’m Stumbling, too!!
Have you tried the crockpot method with chicken pho?
Jaden™, love seeing Crock-Pot® recipes on your Steamy™ Kitchen™ blog®, especially those of classic Viet®namese®®® cooking. Crock-Pot® slowcooker™ makes a lot of sense for making most stocks™. xoxoxo Elise®
OMG, that was too funny about your first attempt at making pho stock! You crack me up! That crock pot is really fancy and shiny, I can see why you wouldn’t to try it out. But I’m still to lazy to go through all that work for, what, six quarts of pho? That sounds like it’ll be gone in a day. I’d just go get some pho since the restaurants make big vats of them. Love pho!
This sounds fabulous! Do you have any advice on how to make the pho vegetarian? I always enjoy vegetarian pho when we go out for Vietnamese food, but I’ve no idea what to substitute for all the meat.
Thanks for sharing these tips!
Love it! Thank you, Jaden! I now can use my slow cooker for something awesome.
I’ve been wanting to get a slow cooker for awhile now. Would you recommend this brand? I’m not very knowledgeable on them.
My girls and I are crazy about pho but had never made it at home successfully. It’s because we didn’t have your method of getting the flavorful broth!
I’m definitely trying this out.
LOL! on your traditional method 🙂
Haha…Love the PHO-KING Tired! Genius play on words! I hope to make this one soon…when i get a crock pot!
The overkill on the branding and credits are damned funny. Love me a smart ass.
Beef Tendon Balls? But tendons are chewy (at best), no? Or just a poorly translated name 😉 Anyway, I’m with Homesick Texan, great excuse to buy a new toy for the kitchen.
This is great! I have hat size slow cooker and would LOVE to make some homemade pho. There actually isn’t a ton of great pho in New York, which is kind of surprising.
Best excuse I’ve seen in a long time to get a slow cooker. BTW, do you remember the name of Tony’s dad’s Houston restaurant?